WASHINGTON — President Trump sought to deflect questions about Russian meddling in the 2016 election onto Barack Obama on Monday while his spokesman again refused to say whether Mr. Trump accepted intelligence findings that Moscow had worked secretly to get him elected president.
In a series of four rapid-fire early-morning posts on Twitter, Mr. Trump continued on a theme he first sounded last week that drew on a Washington Post story about his predecessor’s slow response to the Russian hacking threat last summer and fall.
“The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win,” the president said on Twitter.
Completing the thought in his next tweet, Mr. Trump said: “...and did not want to ‘rock the boat.’ He didn’t ‘choke,’ he colluded or obstructed, and it did the Dems and Crooked Hillary no good.”
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Mr. Obama has said that in a private meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia last fall, he confronted Mr. Putin about the hacking, and told him “to cut it out, there were going to be serious consequences if he did not,” but that he had been reluctant to say anything publicly that would be perceived as affecting the presidential election.
Mr. Trump’s criticism of Mr. Obama for his handling of the Russian hacking, both in his recent tweets and in a TV interview over the weekend, seemed to be a tacit admission, for the first time, that Russia did attempt to undermine Hillary Clinton through hacking and the dissemination of fake news on social media.
But Monday brought caveats and counterattacks.
In an off-camera briefing for reporters, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said only that Mr. Trump has long acknowledged that Russia “probably” tried to influence the election, adding that it was still possible that “other countries” were also involved.
Mr. Spicer demurred when asked to provide proof that anyone other than Russia attempted to sway the election. He also declined to say whether Mr. Trump accepted the finding that the Russians were not merely trying to meddle but were actively working on his behalf in an effort to defeat Mrs. Clinton.
A reporter read Mr. Trump’s comment made last July in which he said that he hoped Russian intelligence services had successfully hacked Mrs. Clinton’s email and encouraged them to publish whatever they may have stolen, and then the reporter asked Mr. Spicer how he could say the president took the threat of foreign meddling seriously.
“He was joking,” Mr. Spicer answered — to an eruption of mocking laughter among the reporters in the briefing room, some of whom had been at the rally and had seen the crowd roar in approval.
Mr. Trump, who has sought unsuccessfully to replace Mr. Spicer at the podium but has been bedeviled by a shortage of candidates willing to work for him, has mused about mixing up the format and frequency to counter what he believes to be a predatory news media seeking to humiliate him at the daily briefing.
Mr. Spicer, despite objections by the White House Correspondents’ Association, has taken to staging off-air briefings that prevent the broadcast of unflattering video clips and place Mr. Trump in the position of being the televised face of his own administration and his own chief defender.
“I want the president’s voice to carry the day,” Mr. Spicer said when reporters interrupted the briefing on Monday to demand his explanation for blacking out coverage.
Mr. Trump, for his part, seems determined to remain the dominant spokesman for the White House. The president, who has taken to referring to himself as “T” on Twitter, demanded on Monday that his critics give him an “apology” for any suggestion that “T people” have colluded with Russia or obstructed justice while continuing a weeklong attack on the Obama administration’s response to Moscow’s attempt to influence the 2016 election.
Many Republicans, including his aides, wish the president would stop focusing on the issue. But Mr. Trump sees questions about Russia’s interference in the election as an effort by Democrats and stragglers from the “Never Trump” movement to delegitimize his victory last November.
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and several congressional committees are investigating whether anyone on Mr. Trump’s campaign, or anyone working on his behalf, collaborated in that effort.
The president’s tweets on Russia and on Mr. Obama were bracketed by two other broadsides. He attacked Democrats for opposing legislative efforts by Republicans to roll back central components of the Affordable Care Act and replace it with their own health plan.
“The Democrats have become nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS, they have no policies or ideas. All they do is delay and complain.They own ObamaCare!” Mr. Trump wrote at 8:30 a.m.
An hour later, after venting over the Russia investigation, he added: “Republican Senators are working very hard to get there, with no help from the Democrats. Not easy! Perhaps just let OCare crash & burn!”
Mr. Spicer, despite objections by the White House Correspondents’ Association, has taken to staging off-air briefings that prevent the broadcast of unflattering video clips and place Mr. Trump in the position of being the televised face of his own administration and his own chief defender.
“I want the president’s voice to carry the day,” Mr. Spicer said when reporters interrupted the briefing on Monday to demand his explanation for blacking out coverage.
Mr. Trump, for his part, seems determined to remain the dominant spokesman for the White House. The president, who has taken to referring to himself as “T” on Twitter, demanded on Monday that his critics give him an “apology” for any suggestion that “T people” have colluded with Russia or obstructed justice while continuing a weeklong attack on the Obama administration’s response to Moscow’s attempt to influence the 2016 election.
Many Republicans, including his aides, wish the president would stop focusing on the issue. But Mr. Trump sees questions about Russia’s interference in the election as an effort by Democrats and stragglers from the “Never Trump” movement to delegitimize his victory last November.
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and several congressional committees are investigating whether anyone on Mr. Trump’s campaign, or anyone working on his behalf, collaborated in that effort.
The president’s tweets on Russia and on Mr. Obama were bracketed by two other broadsides. He attacked Democrats for opposing legislative efforts by Republicans to roll back central components of the Affordable Care Act and replace it with their own health plan.
“The Democrats have become nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS, they have no policies or ideas. All they do is delay and complain.They own ObamaCare!” Mr. Trump wrote at 8:30 a.m.
An hour later, after venting over the Russia investigation, he added: “Republican Senators are working very hard to get there, with no help from the Democrats. Not easy! Perhaps just let OCare crash & burn!”
As reported on nytimes
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